The establishment media have ZERO problem when it comes to scrutinizing the media. We know this because for a decade now, this very same establishment media have worshipped at the altar of Media Matters, a site dedicated to scrutinizing the media.

Yep, for ten years or so Media Matters has been —  and all to the delight of the establishment media — digging into journalists’ pasts, rooting through their social media posts, monitoring every media appearance, studying every previous media appearance no matter how old or obscure, and digging into their political donations… And God help you if you slip or misspeak or offer up anything that can be gotcha’d, because you are gunna get got.

In other words, for all intents and purposes, Media Matters —  and, again, all to the delight of the establishment media —  relentlessly digs for dirt against people in the media. But now…

All of a sudden, the establishment media are opposed to doing that, are up in arms over the very idea of such a thing… CNN has declared it “dangerous!”

Why is that?

Why the sudden change of heart?

Easy answer…

Media Matters only focuses on right-of-center media personnel, or those apostates within the establishment media, like Sharyl Attkisson, who dare color outside the lines…

You see, Media Matters works like this: anyone who is not in perfect lockstep with the establishment media’s left-wing narrative, be it on guns, abortion, same-sex marriage, or how totally freakin’ awesome Obama and Hillary are, is targeted for destruction by this malicious, dishonest, tax-exempt organization.

No matter how obscure, how old, or desperate the “gotcha” has to be, if you pose any kind of challenge to the establishment media’s mob mentality, you are a big, fat, juicy target for reputational annihilation.

So now that we’ve established that the establishment media’s opposition to targeting the media has absolutely nothing to do with decency, principle, fairness, or respect for the ideals of journalism, it is with a spring in my step and a song in my heart that I can announce a turning of the tables…

It is long past time for the hideously dishonest, unabashedly partisan, and malevolent conspiracy theorists in the media to get Media Matters’d, so watching them crybaby and squirm in the world they themselves created is beyond glorious.

The far-left New York Times, CNN, and the insipid Axios are all raising the alarm.

After Breitbart News broke the story of Times’ political editor Tom Wright-Piersanti’s years-long history of antisemitic and racist tweets, rather than fire the Nazi, the very same New York Times that published a literal guide to help leftists put Breitbart News out of business, responded to the scandal by freaking out over scrutiny of its journalists.

“Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House,” the Times headline read. Here’s how the story opened:

A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.

It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.

The group has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times — three outlets that have aggressively investigated Mr. Trump — in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his re-election prospects.

Translation: How dare they Media Matters us!

And yet…

A search of “Media Matters” on the Times website will get you — no joke — 325 hits. And not one Media Matters story is aghast at the tactics Media Matters has utilized for years to expose and destroy those in the right-of-center media. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Newsbusters, a right of center outlet that doesn’t investigate media personnel but does report on media bias, earns — no joke — 28 hits.

The ongoing clown show that is Axios also sounded the alarm and just flat-out lied in its closer: “The liberal group Media Matters monitors journalists and publications and goes public with complaints of bias. But being this blatant and specific about trying to discredit individual reporters is new.”

Yes, that’s all that Media Matters does… “monitors journalists and publications and goes public with complaints of bias.”

And then, of course, there is CNNLOL, which labeled this scrutiny “dangerous“:

A spokesperson for CNN, which has also been attacked, told NYT that when those in government “and those working on their behalf, threaten and retaliate against reporters as a means of suppression, it’s a clear abandonment of democracy for something very dangerous.”

Yeah, because there was no alignment at all between the Obama White House and the Hillary Clinton campaign and Media Matters.

Meanwhile, a search for “Media Matters” at the fake news outlet CNN results in 133 hits. So there you go…

Unless it involves violence or blacklisting (CNN openly encourages both), I have long been in favor of allowing the media to set the rules and then holding the media to those very same rules.

If the establishment media adore Media Matters (and they do), then that’s the standard… Then the media should have to live under Media Matters-style scrutiny.

This is long, long, long past due; this is God’s work, and this is how it has to be.

The establishment media are no longer the “free press.” They are multibillion-dollar propaganda outlets for the Democrat Party, and they need to be treated as what they are not what they pretend to be.

The elite media must be forced to live under their own rules, and the more they crybaby over it — you know, in between treating Media Matters as a legitimate watchdog — the more I’m going to savor and enjoy it. 

Your rules, not mine…

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.